Remedium (Numismatics)

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Mint in the Middle Ages

Remedium is the legally granted deduction or addition to the normal weight or fineness of a coin.

Remedium in the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation

On August 20, 1559, Emperor Ferdinand I in Augsburg issued a trial regulation for regular checking of compliance with the coinage laws in grist and grain when minting coins . The Reichskreise should meet annually on May 1st and October 1st to examine their own issued coins for shot and grain, later called coin probation days .

With the tasting regulations, an error limit was set for the imperial coins, within which the coins were not objectionable: gold coins ½ grän and silver coins 1 grän in the fine or grain. No discrepancy in weight or shot was allowed.

This was the remedium. The coin had to be “right in terms of shot and grain” so that it could be issued by the mint master . The remedy therefore only affects unused coins (see also Adjustment ). The passing weight regulates the extent to which coins, which have a lower weight due to their circulation, are still permitted as a means of payment .

The respective remedy was later determined in the coin laws for the new coins.

Abuse of the Remedium

Of course, there were always mint masters who used the remedy for their own benefit, and when it came to remedies for precious metal coins, it was always a matter of the underweight. In the literature, the remedy is sometimes also made responsible for the constant deterioration of coins .

Skillful mint masters minted with Remedium and not according to legal values ​​from the start. In addition, they misinterpreted the remedy by issuing the coins that were too light on the grist and too bad on the grain within the error limit, but on the other hand the coins that were too heavy on the grist and too good on the grain within the error limit , trimmed or melted down again. According to the trial regulations, this was not permitted.

With the remedium, an average value of the coins in circulation should actually be created, so that overvalue coins also circulate in addition to undervalue. Unless otherwise stipulated in the law, a remedy of 1 Grän means a leeway of ½ Grän upwards and downwards.

This theory of the average value did not work in practice because the Kipper and Wipper were looking for and exchanging these overvalued coins. There were actually only coins in circulation that exactly complied with the law or were of poor value. See also weight adjustment "al pezzo" and "al marco" .

An example of this were the Brandenburg mint masters when they were struck according to the Zinna coin foot. They interpreted the remedy of 1 Grän in such a way that they can also express 1 Grän worse on the grain. In France this abusive practice becomes "chatouiller le remède" and in England "the shere".

Because of the deterioration of the coins, there were repeated demands, especially by minters with their own mines, to abolish the remedy, which was taken into account in later coinage agreements.

Remedium of the Dresden Coin Convention

With the introduction of the 14 thaler foot or 24 ½ guilder foot with the Dresden Coin Convention of July 30, 1838, the governments committed themselves in Article 5 to the minting of Kurant coins “to keep their state mint and to allow the greatest possible care to be taken that even the individual pieces are fully and fully minted out. In particular, they unite one another on the principle that nothing should be reduced to the content or weight of the coins under the pretext of a so-called remedy, but rather a deviation from the content or weight attributable to the latter may only be looked for insofar as such is due to the inaccessibility of one absolute accuracy is required. "

The Kingdom of Saxony implemented this obligation as follows under Section 8 of the Coin Constitution of July 20, 1840:

“Under the pretext of a so-called remedy for the contents or weights of the 14 thaler foot courant coins, we simply do not want to reduce anything, but rather allow a deviation to be looked for insofar as it is caused by the inaccessibility of absolute accuracy. It must but the hereafter in more or less acceptable deviation in any case the amount of three per mil or 864 / 1000 Grän in fineness and three per mil or 3 / 10 per cent in weight: the single two Thaler piece, a Grän in fineness and a half per cent in Weights: for a single one-thaler and of one and a half gren in fineness and one percent in weight: exceed it for a single one-sixth of a thaler. "

Remedium Vienna Mint Treaty

When the customs pound was introduced as the new coin weight and the new club coins in accordance with the Vienna Mint Treaty of January 24, 1857, it was agreed under Article 6, “that under the pretext of a so-called remedy the content or weight of the coins is not reduced, but rather a deviation from that the contents or weights assigned to the latter may only be checked to the extent that an absolute accuracy cannot be maintained. "

When implementing the contract in state law, the Kingdom of Saxony regulated the "permissible extreme deviation in more or less" for individual items under Section 4 (3):

  • 2 thalers, 3 thousand parts in fineness and 3 thousand parts in weight
  • 1 thaler, 3 thousand parts in fineness and 4 thousand parts in weight
  • 1/3 thalers, 4 thousand parts in fineness and 8 thousand parts in weight
  • 1/6 thalers 5 thousand parts in fineness and 10 thousand parts in weight

In addition, it is determined that 13½ double crowns, 27 simple Thaler, 60 3 / 100 Eindrittel- and 93 6 / 10 Einsechteltalerstücke must each weigh one pound. A one-sided deviation to just “less” is therefore not possible.

Remedium Reich currency

When the imperial currency was introduced, the error limit was tightened further in accordance with Section 7 of the law relating to the minting of imperial gold coins of December 4, 1871: "If an absolute accuracy cannot be maintained for the individual pieces, the deviation in more or less in weight should not more than two and a half thousand parts of its weight, in fineness not more than two thousand parts. "

In addition, Section 4 stipulates that 125.55 ten-mark pieces and 62.775 twenty-mark pieces each weigh one pound.

This limit of error for gold coins was also adopted under § 3 in the later Coin Act of August 30, 1924.

In the Coin Act of July 9, 1873, the error limit for silver coins from five-mark pieces down to 50-pfennig pieces with three thousand parts and for twenty-pfennig pieces with 10 thousand parts was determined under § 1.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Stößel, Johann Christoph: Attempt at a Chur-Saxon coin history, Chemnitz 1780, p. 354.
  2. ↑ Friedrich von Schrötter: Dictionary of Coin Studies, 2nd edition 1970, p. 561f.
  3. ↑ Helmut Kahnt, Bernd Knorr: Old dimensions, coins and weights. A lexicon. Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig 1986, licensed edition Mannheim / Vienna / Zurich 1987, ISBN 3-411-02148-9 , p. 396.
  4. ^ Rittmann, Herbert: Deutsche Geldgeschichte 1484-1914, Battenberg 1975, pp. 178f.
  5. ^ Schrötter, Friedrich von: The coinage of Brandenburg during the validity of the Zinna and Leipzig coinage rate; Hohenzollern yearbook 11.1907, p. 63–74, URL: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:109-opus-1873 p.69
  6. ↑ Law and Ordinance Gazette for the Kingdom of Saxony 1839, Part 2, No.2
  7. ↑ Law and Ordinance Gazette for the Kingdom of Saxony 1840, 13th Item No.61
  8. ^ Reichs-Gesetz-Blatt für das Kaiserthum Oesterreich, year 1857, Part XXIII, No. 101, p. 377.
  9. ↑ Deutsches Reichsgesetzblatt Volume 1871, No. 47, pp. 404-406
  10. ↑ Deutsches Reichsgesetzblatt, Volume 1873, No. 22, pp. 233-240